Repsol Honda regrets tire choice for Qatar start

Marc Marquez's decision to change his front tire on the grid before the delayed start of the Qatar Grand Prix proved to be costlier than expected, he admits.

As light rain changed the start time and the race distance twice, Marquez – who was the only rider besides Cal Crutchlow set to start with the hard front – decided to switch from a hard-front/medium-rear combination to medium-medium. Teammate Dani Pedrosa kept with the medium-medium setup for his seventh-place start.

"Our plan was to use the harder front compound, but the chaotic situation with the rain and the continuous delays created many doubts," said Marquez, who started from the front row after track conditions wiped out qualifying. "In the end we decided to go with the medium front, aiming to reduce the risk of crashing, but this turned out to be our biggest mistake of the weekend."

Marquez was able to remain up front and battle for second, but ultimately he fell to fourth.

"I struggled with the front the entire time; I couldn't brake hard and after few laps the tire was already wearing off," he said. "We continued to have some small issues with acceleration, but even so I had a good feeling with my bike. But with that tire choice, I wasn't able to gain on braking.

"That's my strongest point, so I decided, okay let's finish this race and Argentina will be another race."

Pedrosa, who started seventh, fended off Aleix Esparago for fifth. He also felt he would have benefited from a harder front tire and agreed that changing conditions made it hard to remain focused.

"It was a strange race from the beginning," he said. "It was hard to remain focused during those moments. Then we did our best to manage the race, but we suffered a lot with the front tire, which turned out to be too soft for us. We couldn't push with the front and I think that all the Hondas had the same problems.

"Saving the tire to make it last until the end was hard, and above all we weren't able to push. Anyway, it's just the first race; we must immediately concentrate on the next one, try to solve this issue and have a good race in Argentina."